Dox drivers vs Nvidia?

Hi i am busa and I was hoping someone could give me a hand.

I have a Gateway FX gaming laptop:
http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668355.php

Windows 7

and I want to get ready for SC2! So I was reading around and I found many topics on how people 'customize' and 'tweak' their laptops for the best performance. Such as overclocking,undervolting (lower temps), and special drivers.

And I heard about drivers made by a person named Dox. Please tell me why these drivers are different and if better how so? I would also appreciate a link to the driver (if you have them), one that is compatible for Windows 7.

I am really here to learn about all these things that are completely new and extremely interesting to me. I would really like to hear about more things one can do to their laptop for more performance. Thank you.

 

These are the newest Dox drivers:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=449840

They are optimized to better perform in game as opposed to benchmarks and I would get a program like Everest or Gpu-Z to watch your temps as they may increase some, but shouldn't be a huge increase.

Im running his 185.85 drivers and they are great albeit my idle temps went up a little bit nothing dangerous.

 

you might wanna reconsider the "may increase some" part because I tried Dox drivers with a Go7600,Go7300 and a 9300 GS and actually the temp increase for the 7300 & 9300 was way beyond "some" it was like +15 C loaded ..... while for the 7600 the temps didn't go as high .... so the behavior is GPU dependent I guess

 

hi busa and welcome to nbr.

nvidia are the official drivers and dox are tweeked.
if your new to updating drivers and you use dox's and your graphics card fries then your warranty may be void.

 

I've always had good experiences with dox drivers. I see either the same or higher performance in all my games (when compared to the generic version of the driver). One thing I found interesting was that for the games where I had no increase in frames, the game still felt smoother and more crisp. I don't really know what the exact cause for it is, but it definitely improves gameplay for me. My max temps went up by 3°C.

Go ahead and give them a try, but keep an eye on your temps just in case. Make sure to try different versions too, I finally settled on an older version (185.68) that worked the best for my laptop.

 

You're better off just sticking with Nvidia's official drivers. DOX has a fanbase, but his modded drivers don't make a difference anymore.

 

get 195.62 drivers and try the below fix for solving powermixer problems... this is awesome and GPU runs cool...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456313

 

Wow, thank you very much for helping out!

I thought of myself as pretty knowledgeable about computers and the internet but after reading through some of your post's, I am humbled. So many new things.

thank you for the kind welcome

btw sean473: I love Athrun Zala! though Yzak Joule and Heine Westenfluss is my fav =P
I have a game called Zaft vs Omni for PS2; have you tried it?

 

No problem.
I just recently reverted back to official nvidia 186.81due to my idle temps getting a little to high over the several days I was testing them; however, I can definitely say my minimum frame rate went up with Dox drivers but I prefer a cooler notebook, as many have said.

 

Stability is my goal. The newly released 196.75 WHQL takes the cake. And I can assure you, the cake is not a lie.

 

Haha yeah, Ive been looking into the new 19x.xx drivers but am content with 186.81 until I do a bit more reading.

 

About installing new drivers and updating them:

When I go 'Device Manager' and click 'Update Driver', my computer comes back saying that the drivers I have are already up to date.

My graphics card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M (laptop version). In 'Properties' the listed version is: 8.16.11.8766


So I am confused to the 196.75 and 195.62 drivers that are being recommended. Surely, 8.16.11.8766 does not = 196.75, and yet my PC says the drivers are already up to date. It seems that the automatic driver updating system on my computer does not work then...?

I purchased this laptop about 2 months ago and I have not installed any new drivers, just been using the ones installed.

 

I was the same as you. I stuck with 186.81 WHQL for the longest time until Nvidia released their redeemer 196.21/196.34, and now the latest release on that build, 196.75 WHQL. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5967478&postcount=1322

 

I would not use the update driver method because as you have just attested it is not always accurate.

Take the last five digits of your driver i.d.; that gives you 187.66. I would assume that is a more recent driver, you do not need to update, but Im not familiar with that specific driver. A quick google would solve that, though.

For the most recent drivers try laptopvideo2go or nvidia's site.

Hmmmm I may have to give them a spin.

 

I tried the 196.75 drivers but they do not work with my computer. I guess I have to stick with the OEM drivers

 

I've been hearing a lot of problems with other users trying to use the straightforward way of installing the driver. For now, install it manually. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5970222&postcount=1338

Once you get it up and running, it's all smooth sailing from then on.

 

How are the temps with these drivers? I'm looking for something that reduces my temps.

 

I felt the same way when i came here first... i've learnt and lot and after seeing and learning from these ppl , i regret buying this hp laptop but can't do anything... anyways i'm a gundam seed fan... i've played the PSP game but nver heard about the PS2 one... anyways , i hope its nice because i don't have a console lol...

 

I'm having so much trouble getting a modded INF for 196.75. The link at laptopvide2go isn't working.

 

By that, do you mean it downloads a .inf.txt file? I had that issue, but you just need to delete the .txt from the end, and it will work fine.

 

Oh great thank you! I'll try it now.

edit: yup worked great, thanks! Installed just fine.

 

warning... stay away from 196.75 drivers... causing overheating and other problems!

 

I haven't had any issues so far.

 

They're pretty cool. On a mild underclock and undervolt, my GPU is staying in the upper 50's.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5977934&postcount=7

This only applies to desktops as the fan controller is handled differently compared to notebooks. There are no problems with this driver set and I have yet to see any instance in notebooks related to the problems Nvidia stated when they recalled the driver.

 

what are you guys talking about? inf?

I understand the txt part that you need to remove, but by doing so you can install better drivers?

I tried installing the some drivers sean and bare recommended, but my computer said it was not compatible. So I had to reinstall the gateway listed nvidia drivers.

 

My GPU temp usually ranges between 37-43C now.

 

All of my Source games won't take my GPU very high. 60*C is rare to see. But when idle my GPU slowly cycles within it's 40-50*C fan threshold.